Meredith Monk’s concept of sound of what you can do merely with your voice without using words is truly amazing as it attracts attention in a way that makes you search for deeper connections between sound and voice and what they aim at representing. Her voice is an instrument itself and she actively uses different pitches in order to perform.
“The Songs of
Ascension” seems to be a piece referring to the eternal cycle of life and
rebirth just by the sound of it. The visual effect of the whole piece of course
plays an important role in this perception. There’s struggle and victory in
every step she makes on the way up, there’s an impartial eye of the universe in
the water downstairs, there’s light of hope upstairs, there’s prayer and unity
which altogether reminds me of Pauline Oliveros’s ideas of common sisterhood.
At times it sounds almost discordant which surprisingly creates this idea of
new sound which you can create solely with your voice. Another interesting
detail about “The Songs of Ascension” is that Meredith Monk does not have a lot
of people singing for the piece, however the feeling you get while listening to
it and especially without paying attention to the performance itself makes you
wonder how just a few people can create such sound of hundreds of voices
singing together. It seems to be the careful work of each musician, a complex
variation of each voice that the whole piece consists of.
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